Something New

 So this week I attempted to be a little more laid back with school. I guess you could say we did a mixture of unschooling and unit study. Monday was a bit of a wash. Due to unforeseen circumstances the day kinda got away from me. However she did get a lot of reading in and some math. Tuesday we learned about why we have ground hog day. Did you know that it dates clear back to 1876? That is a long time to celebrate a made up thing. We also did math, art, and more reading. She is becoming such a book  worm. Wednesday we studied about rabbits, She loves science and this year we are studying zoology. So I let her choose which animal she wanted to study. Last month it was cats, this month its rabbits. She wanted to learn about her bunnies breed specifically, but we had a hard time finding much on the subject. We also talked about the story of Peter Rabbit. After reading the story I had her write her own story about something not obeying the rules and the consequences of that. Since she had already started typing a story about her cats she just added this to her story. We did some more math too. Oh and we can't forget the street signs. It seems like every time we are driving in the car she asks "What does that sign mean mom?" So I went to the DMV and got a drivers manual to read about all the signs. She studied the pages about signs for at least 20 min.  Thursday we sewed, and sewed and sewed. We made a little bunny filled him with rice and she's been carrying it around since.

   Normally our days are a bit more structured, contain more subjects, and planned out. This week I just kinda figured it out as we went along. I hope all her reading is doing her some good. Maybe next week I can plan a bit better. Although I do think she enjoys school a bit more this way. Just not so sure I can shut down the demons in my head telling me I failed at teaching her anything, to do it this way.

How to Have a More Effective Homeschool

I have been taking this on-line webinar class, that is supposed to be teaching me how to better teach miss Savannah. The presenter is an LDS lady that has home schooled for 20 some years. The whole thing is divided up into six one hour sessions.

  The first class was all about creating your master plan. I still need to sit down and do this. Basically you are going to figure out what you hope to accomplish this year in your homeschooling. Also you are to create a master reading list. Reading is a HUGE part of homeschooling. I had no idea how much homeschooling people emphasize reading. There are entire home school programs designed to read the day away. Savannah loves to read so this isn't that big of a deal, but I feel this giant pressure to only let her read the classics. Which by the way everyone has a different idea as to which books are classics.

 This brings me to the second class which was all about family reading time. So basically I am supposed to do school with her for hours a day then on top of that we are going to find another hour or so to snuggle up and read a book. Not just any book either, a classic.

 The third class was family devotional. Umm lets just say I don't feel comfortable having a devotional every single day. I am a terrible person I don't bear my testimony on fast Sunday and don't feel spiritual enough to just spout off my feelings about the gospel at any given minute. Sorry not happening.

 The fourth class was a bit more interesting. Its title is inspire and respond. This one got me thinking. Miss Savannah is very stubborn yes that's it she's stubborn. Anyway, this class was talking about how to introduce things to your children in a way that is appealing to them. With the hope that they will love the idea whatever it may be. For example, I want Savannah to learn to play the piano or some musical instrument. She loves music and I think she could be great at it. Well we tried to make her take piano lessons. It's not going so well. So I learned that instead of just saying ok today you are starting piano, what I should have done was exposed her to different aspects of piano. Like take her to a concert, music store and let her touch and look at all the musical instruments. Then waited for her to show me her desire to play. Basically this session was about how to make thing the child's idea because they are more likely to pursue that. Also it talked about responding to the child's "spark". This is a bit harder to explain other than, help your child pursue their interests.

 So I am just going to take bits and pieces of each class and try to figure out what the heck I am doing here. While simultaneously trying to keep my sanity.

Frogs

My silly little girl loves frogs. This summer we caught a bunch of tadpoles and a few baby frogs. Turns out larger tadpoles will eat the small ones. We were able to raise six of the frogs/ toads until late fall when we decided to let them free. Grandpa Austin also helped the frog farm by catching little miss a tree frog and bringing it over. Turns out tree frogs like crickets not meal worms. The other frogs loved meal worms and would eat several at a time. The tree frog also got released into the wild.

This year in science we are studying zoology, and this week we are studying amphibians.  So today we focused on frogs. I found a fun website that had all kinds of fun information on frogs and toads. She loved it! She spent over an hour reading about frogs and listening to their sounds. She even wrote down interesting facts that she wanted to remember later. I love this kid!

Our Crazy Life

Life has gotten rather busy around here lately. After much prayer and fasting we decided to home school. I must say it isn't exactly what I had expected. It is a lot harder and way more stressful for starters. I find I have very little time to myself, between school, house work, two church callings and now my new responsibilities in FB, my mind is constantly thinking about something that I really need to do. I have decided to help my sanity by going back to kickboxing class. 

Things I've learned, there is a ton of options to choose from when looking to home school. And lots of different ideas on methods. I decided to go with Latter Day Learning for our main curriculum. It combines gospel learning into our everyday learning, and while I like it there are things that I think it is lacking in. I just realized that the stuff that I think it is lacking is where I am supposed to go into more depth. I have the freedom to teach what I want. WoW! Imagine that.

Also I need to change my views on how we do school. If I try to shove to much into one day then we both end up frustrated and mad. Nobody learns well that way. I was also trying to fit in the entire curriculum into my school year. Who cares if we finish it all. It's quality not quantity that matters. 

We also do Harmony School. I don't really know how it explain it but it's really cool. She goes to Meridian for four classes once a week. She is starting to enjoy it, most of the time. She is learning Spanish, Sign Language, and music and movement, and has PE. It is really good for her to get out of her comfort zone and make new friends. She even made a craft for one of the other girls in her class. 

One wonderful thing about homeschooling is that I get to find out more about my little girl that is growing so fast. She loves, loves Science and Anatomy. So to feed this interest I got her a human anatomy coloring book where she can color and label all the different parts of the body. I also got her an oceanography coloring book. Plus she is getting some fun Science stuff for Christmas. We also have science Thursdays which include our zoology lessons and experiments. She also loves art, so I try to incorporate as many crafts in our lessons as possiable. She is a very crafty, artsy girl.

Math is an on going struggle. She like her mother hates math, so I am continually trying to find ways to make it less of a struggle. But life is a struggle. We will figure it out eventually. 

Also she reads at a third grade level and is only in the second grade so I am trying to figure out what to do for her english work. Writing however is a bit easier. She has horriable penmenship so we are working on that. She really wants to learn cursive so I decided why not teach her. I must say her cursive is pretty dang good for a beginner. 

I think if I learn to relax a bit on my idea of how school should go we will  get it figured out. All in all our first half of the school year has been going pretty good.